Sunday, May 04, 2003

Not the good general, but the esteemed Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark. Yes!

In an interview in the British newspaper the Guardian, Helen Clark is reported to have warned that the United States and its allies had created a dangerous precedent by going to war without a UN resolution.

"This is a century which is going to see China emerge as the largest economy, and usually with economic power comes military clout," she said. In the world we are constructing, we want to know (that the system) will work whoever is the biggest and the most powerful."

A juicy read.

*****

Update: Also see this about the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Clark asserting that the war in Iraq never would have happened if Al Gore was president.

The Prime Minister has apologised to Washington for any offence caused. But she has not retracted her comments, and this has led to demands in Parliament by Act leader Richard Prebble, New Zealand First's Winston Peters and the National Party's Bill English that she make a second apology, admitting she was wrong in suggesting Mr Gore opposed the war.

She was not wrong at all. She was absolutely correct, and they are the ones who are wrong. Mr Gore has made crystal clear his strong opposition to the war and the rationale behind it. In fact, the recorded positions of Mr Gore and Helen Clark are virtually identical.

Mr Prebble told a political studies conference at Auckland University on April 13: "Al Gore is actually a hawk on Iraq and, as our internet search shows, he has made no statement criticising George Bush."

Act should get someone to tell it how to use internet search engines. If you use the leading search engine, Google, and enter the words "Gore Iraq", hundreds of responses come up relating to a speech in which Mr Gore scathingly attacked the Bush war policy.